By Christina MacIntosh
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — The Bridger-Teton National Forest will allow two Wyoming Game and Fish elk feedgrounds that need their permits renewed to continue to operate on forest land for at least three more years.

The draft decision, published Sunday, allows for continued winter feeding at Dell Creek, near Bondurant, and Forest Park, near Afton.

The renewal follows the first winter in which chronic wasting disease — an always fatal and highly transmissible neurological malady — was detected on Wyoming feedgrounds during active feeding. The disease killed 10 elk across four feedgrounds, including six at Dell Creek.

Feedgrounds keep elk in close proximity and foster the spread of disease, but shuttering them has faced strong opposition from ranchers, outfitters and lawmakers.

“Feeding as part of winter elk management in western Wyoming is an emotive and controversial issue, and for good reason,” Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor Chad Hudson wrote in his decision.

Hudson called the decision “difficult and complicated.”

Feeding elk keeps them off ranches, preventing them from spreading brucellosis to cattle. It also keeps the population high, creating increased opportunity for hunters and outfitters. Research suggests that ceasing to feed elk would decrease the population in the short term but that allowing CWD to spread through continued feeding will decrease the population more long term.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission requested a 20-year extension of the permit; Hudson opted to renew the permit for three years, to give Game and Fish time to develop feedground management plans and to put the two feedgrounds on the same permitting schedule as the other five on the forest, which will be up for renewal in 2028.

Game and Fish is neutral about the decision, spokesperson Amanda Fry said.

Terry Pollard, a Pinedale outfitter, wishes the forest had granted a longer permit.

“Three years is better than nothing,” he said.

Kristin Combs, executive director of Wyoming Wildlife Advocates, was dismayed at the decision.

“The right thing to do is to stop the feeding regime,” she said. “But the politically expedient decision is the one they have chosen.”

People who previously submitted public comment have 43 days to object to the decision.

Hudson can sign a final decision five business days after the end of the objection period.